


and other beautiful words

by miraestrellxs



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Aro/Ace, Aromantic, Asexual, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Modern AU, Self-Acceptance, aro/ace Lyra, different AUs because i can't choose just one, latina Lyra, pride month
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-07 09:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19081843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraestrellxs/pseuds/miraestrellxs
Summary: In honour to Pride Month: aro/ace Lyra ft. other LGBTQA+ characters sprinkled in for flavour. Each chapter is a new universe where Lyra realises she can love without being in love.





	1. Novaturient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Canon Compliant.

_**NOVATURIENT (adj)**  _  
_**desiring or seeking powerful change in one's life, behaviour or situation** _

 

* * *

 

i.

First, Lyra thinks it is because she will never love anyone as much as she loved Will.

She is thirteen, assisting an all-girls school and convinced she understands what love is.

Pantalaimon doesn’t know what else to say or do to console her when she feels alone. Lying on her bed in St. Sophia trying not to cry so none of the girls sharing the room with her will notice. Pantalaimon no longer has words of comfort and understanding, like he hadn’t loved Kirjava with every atom of himself like Lyra had loved Will.

 _Every atom of me, every atom of you,_ she said.

Some nights she dreams she kisses him again and wakes up with an ache taking on a layer of her body that isn’t quite her bones or her muscles, located between her chest and throat and the back of her head.

Lyra and Pantalaimon go to the bench in the botanical garden on midsummer day, midday of midsummer day just like they agreed.

She brings the alethiometer and the books Dame Hannah allowed her to take from the library (as long as she swore they would suffer no harm). Something Dame Hannah’s dæmon saw or sensed on Pantalaimon when they exchanged glances after Lyra’s adamant reassurance of how careful she would be must have finally convinced them. Lyra was allowed to take the books back to her room. She probably wasn’t allowed to take them off campus and bring them here, but what Dame Hannah and the librarian didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

“I miss them, Pan,” she says, stopping on the page where the meanings of the chameleon start.

“Me too,” says Pantalaimon, who stopped his prancing and exploring around the garden to lay down on the back of the bench.

“You don’t seem to.”

“To what?”

“Miss them.”

He doesn’t answer.

“Don’t you love them anymore?”

“Of course I do, every atom.”

“Every atom,” Lyra echoes. “Why doesn’t it feel like it?”

Pantalaimon tousles his pine marten whiskers. “I don’t know.”

Lyra doesn’t know either. What she does know is that, deep down, she feels the same as her dæmon and that scares her very much. Because she promised. She made Will promises out of love and she didn’t want to regret them lest he continued to love her  _with every atom_ and she didn’t.

She can’t lie about that.

 

ii.

When Lyra kisses Billy Costa she is fifteen and her only thought is:  _is this really how it felt when I kissed Will?_

Billy’s dæmon, Morgayne (comfortable in the form of a wolf but not yet settled), doesn’t nuzzle Pantalaimon as Kirjava did. That is why, Lyra reasons, she doesn’t feel anything beyond uncomfortable. Her first kiss with Will was also a lot more charged in a strange sort of ambaric energy, it drew her to him like a magnet and there was nothing of that here. (She isn’t crying out of ache from separation either, which Lyra thinks is good).

“That was—” she says.

“Weird,” says Billy.

Lyra nods, relieved it isn’t just her.

Pantalaimon and Morgayne both chuckle.

Lyra and Billy do too.

“Let’s never do that again,” says Lyra.

Now, Billy nods. “Agreed.”

 

iii.

When she kisses one of her classmates, Pauline Sorano (because Lyra thinks the fact Billy was a boy might have been a factor and, no, she doesn’t think about Will), she feels awkward again.

Pauline smiles but Lyra doesn’t.

Pantalaimon bumps his nose with Pauline’s skunk-dæmon. An apology, with it Pauline’s smile disappears.

Lyra is seventeen.

That is the last time she kisses anyone.

 

iv.

“Didn’t we love them, Pan?” Lyra asks him at midday and three quarters on midsummer day.

With the cross pendant of the necklace Dame Hannah gave her for her birthday last year, Lyra carved  _WP & K_ on the bench. She thinks it looks like the brass plates of the skulls in Jordan’s catacombs, the ones with the names of scholars and their dæmons.

She is wearing a pair of high-waisted tan coloured pants and really hates to admit Will had been right about them. Dame Hannah (who insists Lyra just call her Hannah) is working on a political campaign of some kind, Lyra isn’t too immersed in the matter. She has way too much schoolwork to read the  _Oxford Times_ and the likes, she can’t afford to have reading material that doesn’t involve symbology. Dame Hannah’s campaign started a reduced group of women wearing pants like men. So, wanting to show her support, Lyra did it too.

Pantalaimon, balancing quite awkwardly on her raised knees, says, “Of course we did.”

“We won’t love anyone again like we loved them will we?”

Pantalaimon flickers one of his small ears. His tail twitches almost as if he had changed shape to be a wildcat again. “No, I don’t think we will.”

“But we are happy, right?”

“I am, are you?”

“Yeah, I am.”

 

v.

Would Will forgive her for forgetting about him?

First, she stopped thinking about him every day. Then, she forgot about him for days and then weeks at a time. Months. Nowadays, she remembers what fuels her nightmares more than she does him. The harpies in the Land of the Dead or leaving Pantalaimon on the dock. She would see someone named  _William_  on a text she had to read for class or someone last named  _Parry_  and suddenly remember, and feel guilty.

She wonders if he forgets about her too.

(That would make her feel less guilty).

 

vi.

“We don’t love them less,” says Pantalaimon. “We love them differently.”

Lyra doesn’t like those romance books Jeanette Muller loves to talk about, so her knowledge about that specific matter is limited at best. Her thirteen-year-old self would have claimed otherwise, but at nineteen Lyra knows better and at nineteen Lyra admits being ignorant on certain things (another thing her thirteen-year-old self would have handled differently). Lyra doesn’t  _understand_ love, at least not the one written in Jane Austen’s books.

“We love them like we loved Roger,” Pantalaimon continues.

That knocks almost all the air out of Lyra’s lungs, it feels like a lightbulb in her brain. (Mixed with her grief for Roger that never left her as  _RP & S_ carved on the botanical garden bench next to  _WP & K_ could testify).

“But why?” she asks because, like all things not told to her by the alethiometer (currently resting on her palms while she sits on her bed in St. Sophia), she doubts. “What changed?”

“We grew up?” Pantalaimon suggests, uncertain.

Lyra looks at the alethiometer. “This is going to be a complicated question.”

 

vii.

Did I love him?

_Yes._

Why don’t I now?

_You still do._

I love him differently.

_Yes._

Why?

_Your destiny was fulfilled, Eve doesn’t have to be in love with Adam anymore._

 

viii.

It feels like a weight off her shoulders and boulder to the chest.

“We weren’t allowed to be ourselves with them, Pan,” Lyra whispers to her dæmon in the dead of night. She’s crying but almost like an afterthought, her breathing doesn’t heave and there is no knot in her throat.

Pantalaimon licks her cheeks, wiping the tears.

“We were manipulated by destiny, I couldn’t choose not to be in love with him.” Lyra wipes the tears and the feeling of Pantalaimon’s saliva. “I couldn’t choose to love him my way.”

“And what way is that?” Pantalaimon asks like he already knows, and he does.

“Like I loved Roger, like I  _love_ Roger.” Lyra brings Pantalaimon close to her face to bury her nose in his fur. The fur Will petted and baptised as her dæmon's settled form (though sometimes she feels a tug on her heartstrings when Pantalaimon is a little too far from her and she thinks he is changing into different animals behind her back). “I don’t want to kiss or date or get married, ever. I am happy like this.”

“Me too.”

“I wish we could explain it to Will and Kirjava.”

“The method of travel the angel mentioned —  _imagination_ —, remember? If we learn how to do that we will be able to see them. Maybe they realised they were manipulated too.”

“And if they weren’t and they were in love?”

“Then, they love us enough to understand.”

 

ix.

Mary’s travel to China, Lyra thinks about that too.

She looks at all she felt and did during her travels with suspicion now. She can no longer trust that girl — Eve — who feels alienated from Lyra Silvertongue. Eve acted as she was supposed to, not as she wanted.

(And she is angry because she feels lied to and, oh, it's ironic. When had she stopped being herself? Before or after she crossed the bridge to the sky?)

“I don’t like marzipan,” Lyra says, “And I don’t wanna go to China.”

“Me neither,” says Pantalaimon, and he sounds happy.

 

x.

“Why did you never get married, Hannah?”

Dame Hannah — first elected woman of the parliament as of this morning —, grabs a butter cookie from the plate between her and Lyra on the bench of the botanical garden. It is one in the afternoon of midsummer day and they are having tea. Hibiscus tea, something new and tropical Lyra brought back from her travels to Hispania Nova.

Jesper and Pantalaimon are on shoulder and lap respectively.

“I never had the inclination to,” says Dame Hannah.

“You never loved anyone?”

“Not enough to marry.”

“Have you dated?”

“I did, when I was younger, about your age. My first kiss was at twenty-three if you would believe that, my nieces love that story, they think it's hilarious. It stopped being a priority after the fourth or fifth date, until I completely forgot to even  _try_.” Dame Hannah takes another cookie, having handed the previous one to Jesper. “And here I am.”

Lyra smiles and spins the small hibiscus floating on her rose-tinted tea.

“And here we are.”

“Having a partner is overrated if you ask me,” says Dame Hannah. “There is nothing wrong with wanting to be by yourself as long as you are happy.”

Just last month Lyra assisted to one of her ex-roommate's wedding, a clandestine affair held in one Godstow Priory down in Oxfordshire. The Sisters were delighted to officiate for the two young ladies. Lyra learned to use her career as an excuse to skirt around suitors. Her friends had all but stopped pressuring her since they graduated. More married like Selene Ríos did, others Lyra wasn't quite sure because she never saw them again. Gwenyth Nakamura had a son now, she heard.

Maybe if her role models (like Dame Hannah or the Master of Jordan) were the type to get married and have kids, Lyra might have felt pressured.

Instead.

“I am. Happy, I mean.”

Dame Hannah smiles. “Good.”

Lyra takes another sip of her tea and thumbs the _WP & K_ on the bench. Both  _WP & K_ and _RP & S_ have hearts carved around them now.

 

xi.

The zeppelin is to leave at first light tomorrow, so Lyra comes to the bench despite the date. Whenever she misses a midsummer day because of her expeditions and travels she comes the day before she leaves to make up for it.

(She adds it to the list of things she will tell Will when she manages to travel with her imagination.)

“I’m going back to the North,” she tells the sunlight coming through the trees. “Maybe I will see your world in the Aurora, or hear you where the veil between the worlds is thinner. There is so much I want to tell you, Will.”

And she will still find him on dragonfly wings and the raindrops and pine trees, like she will find Roger and Mr. Scoresby and her own Pantalaimon. Because she loves him in her own way as fiercely (because Lyra Silvertongue does everything fierce) as she loved him when they said goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if the other 6 will be as self-reflective as this one, mostly I was projecting. Unlike Lyra, I have never kissed or thought I was in love with someone, but her feelings on her journey to realise there is nothing wrong with her are a reflection of my own.


	2. Phosphenes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern AU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This... is a bunch of silliness. Might have rushed it a bit because I wanted to actually post something else before Pride Month was over. I'm not exactly happy with it, so it might get rewritten at some point. All the other oneshots might not get done before June ends but that doesn't mean I won't write them. Also my Lyra is latina so deal with it.

**_**PHOSPHENES (n)**  _  
_**the light and colours produced by rubbing your eyes** _ **

 

* * *

 

 

 **(15:53) WILL PARRY** to **BLONDE GREMLIN  
**Question

 

 **(15:53) LYRA BELACQUA** to **CRAZY CAT LADY  
**answer

 

 **(15:53) WILL PARRY  
**What is ace?

 

 **(15:56) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ sent a photo ]  
[ sent a photo ]  
[ sent a photo ]  
[ sent a gif ]  
[ sent a photo ]  
[ sent a gif ]

 

 **(16:04) WILL PARRY  
**You can't ever just explain things like a normal person can you  
I'm impressed by how quickly you found all these memes

 

 **(16:05) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i am a talented individual

 

 **(16:05) WILL PARRY  
**So what I gather from this is cake and dragons?  
Also plants

 

 **(16:05) LYRA BELACQUA  
**you got it!

 

 **(16:06) WILL PARRY  
**I'm not the last to know, am I?  
Because you make it seem like you've known for a while

 

 **(16:06) LYRA BELACQUA  
**it just never came naturally in conversation  
i am glad you're so cool with it tho [ sparkly-heart-emoji ]

 

 **(16:07) WILL PARRY  
**Of course I'm cool with it  
Why? Is someone not cool with it?

 

 **(16:07) LYRA BELACQUA  
**kind of don't wanna tell my parents  
my mum is hellbent on me having kids for some ungodly reason  
she doesn't even like ME i don't know why she would want mini-mes

 

 **(16:07) WILL PARRY  
**I'm too afraid of your mum to talk to her so we're good  
And I'm pretty sure your dad hates me so we're good there too

 

 **(16:07) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ 4-sparkly-heart-emojis ]  
everyone else you can tell if it comes naturally in conversation  
just don't go shouting it everywhere  
also don't tell anyone who could tell my parents

 

 **(16:08) WILL PARRY  
**My lips are sealed  
Does Roger know?

 

 **(16:08) LYRA BELACQUA  
**nope i want to tell him in person when he comes back to school  
he's still very sick and would probably forget if i texted him now  
mary does know tho  
she walked me through the five stages of acceptance  
she even said she would get me an ace ring for my birthday!!

 

 **(16:09) WILL PARRY  
**Ace ring?

 

 **(16:09) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ sent a photo ]  
[ sent a photo ]  
this!

 

 **(16:09) WILL PARRY  
**Is the second one Pan?

 

 **(16:09) LYRA SILVERTONGUE  
**milipede Pan who has agreed to be my ace ring until i get a real one  
millipede*

 

 **(16:09) WILL PARRY  
**True dae support

 

 **(16:09) LYRA SILVERTONGUE  
**[ peace-sign emoji ]

 

* * *

 

**GROUP CHAT**

**LYRA BELACQUA** change the chat name to **THE SECRET QUINCEAÑOS**

 **LYRA BELACQUA** added:  
**WILL PARRY  
****ROGER PARSLOW  
****BILLY COSTA  
****RACHEL BERNTHAL** (+)

 

 **(13:04) LYRA BELACQUA  
**okay so you all know my mum is holding a quinceños  
that's really just one of her cocktail parties except with more relatives i know what to do with  
also none of you got invited because my mum hates all my friends so [ peace-sign-emoji ]  
BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS

 

 **(13:05) BILLY COSTA  
**u are holding a secret quinceanos???

 

 **(13:05) LYRA BELACQUA  
**pls don't say "quinceanos" that means "fifteen buttholes"  
BUT YEAH I AM HAVING A SECRET QUINCEAÑOS  
i wanted to do it at mary's place but her flat is biohazard and potentially explosive  
so we are having it at this restaurant in oxfordshire

 

 **(13:06) ROGER PARSLOW  
**Why not have it at jordan?

 

 **(13:06) LYRA BELACQUA  
**and give all the old people there heartattacks with the volume of the music?  
i'm not gonna be responsible for that  
plus the restaurant said it would provide the food

 

 **(13:08) WILL PARRY  
**Date?

 

 **(13:08) LYRA BELACQUA  
**a week after my birthday  
you can give me my gift on my birthday tho [ eyes-emoji ]

 

 **(14:01) LYRA BELACQUA  
**you wankers left me on seen  
cold

 

 **(14:02) WILL PARRY  
**[ kissy-face-emoji ]

 

 **(14:02) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ middle-finger-emoji ]

 

* * *

 

 **(2:34) LYRA BELACQUA** to **DR. BIRD  
**hey

 

 **(2:34) MARY MALONE** to **LYRA B.  
**What are you doing up

 

 **(2:34) LYRA BELACQUA  
**what are YOU doing up

 

 **(2:34) MARY MALONE  
**As the adult I don't have to answer that

 

 **(2:35) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ sticking-tongue-emoji ]  
are you free a week after my birthday

 

 **(2:38) MARY MALONE  
**I am right now but plans might change  
Why?

 

 **(2:38) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i am having a secret party with friends  
well it's not really secret everyone knows probably even my mum  
but it's an actual party with cake and music i like instead of marisa coulter's cocktail party

 

 **(2:39) MARY MALONE  
**I will try to leave it free  
Are there going to be other adults I can talk to  
Because I don't mingle with kids

 

 **(2:39) LYRA BELCAQUA  
**will is gonna be there and he was born in his 40s so yeah???  
dame hannah might show up at the end when we sing happy birthday  
also the owners of the restaurant are most likely adults  
also also it's gonna be at this restaurant in oxfordshire named the trout i'll send you the address

 

 **(2:39) MARY MALONE  
**I'll go as long as you play old school music like Eurythmics

 

 **(2:39) LYRA BELACQUA  
**adding them to my playlist [ purple-heart-emoji ]  
bring your own alcoholic beverages at your own risk billy might drink them

 

 **(2:40) MARY MALONE  
**[ thumbs-up-emoji ]  
[ sent screenshot ]  
You are on my planner

 

 **(2:40) LYRA BELACQUA  
**YAY

 

 **(2:40) MARY MALONE  
**Now go to sleep  
I have a level of plants vs zombies to beat

 

 **(2:41) LYRA BELACQUA  
**you're supposed to be the fun mum and dame hannah the boring mum

 

* * *

 

 **(8:56) MARISA COULTER** to **LYRA  
**I hope you are dressed and ready to leave when I get there

 

 **(8:57) LYRA BELACQUA to PROGENITORA  
**no one should be up this early on break  
we could have easily gone on the afternoon

 

 **(8:57) MARISA COULTER  
**I have too much to do and this is the only moment I have free to go shopping

 

 **(8:57) LYRA BELACQUA  
**pues entonces you should have let me wear any of the other dresses you already bought me

 

 **(8:58) MARISA COULTER  
**This is your Quinceaños, Lyra  
You can't just wear any other dress it needs to be special

 

 **(8:58) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i'm never going to wear it again  
why waste the money on something i'm gonna wear only once

 

 **(9:00) MARISA COULTER  
**It will make it even more special  
And you better not give me attitude once today  
The car is parked outside

 

* * *

 

**THE DUSTLINGS**

**SELENE RÍOS** changed the group icon

 

 **(10:04) LYRA BELACQUA** aka **IT'S EVE BITCH  
**[ sent a photo ]  
give it to me straight chief how bad is it

 

 **(10:04) RACHEL BERNTHAL** aka **WINE AUNT  
**holy shit is that skirt real???  
how do you even walk in that

 

 **(10:04) LYRA BELACQUA  
**I Have No Clue

 

 **(10:05) GWENYTH NAKAMURA** aka **OWNER OF THE BRAINCELL  
**Maybe if Pan turned into an albino peacock

 

 **(10:05) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ sent a photo ]  
still no better  
the bodice has so many stones it's a workout just standing straight

 

 **(10:06) DIANNE FERRARO** aka **911 WHAT'S YOUR EMERGENCY  
**solution: ride white lion pantalaimon

 

 **(10:06) LYRA BELACQUA  
**oooooooh  
[ sent a photo ]  
YES THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER

 

 **(10:07) DIANNE FERRARO  
**instead of walking you ride him during the cocktail party  
assert dominance  
scare the suitors

 **** **RACHEL BERNTHAL** changed **LYRA BELACQUA'S** nickname to **ACTUAL GODDESS**

 

* * *

 

 **(14:15) LYRA BELACQUA** to **CRAZY CAT LADY  
**[ sent a photo ]  
I AM GODDESS

 

 **(14:16) WILL PARRY** to **BLONDE GREMLIN  
**Why  
Why are you riding Pan while wearing a dress with a skirt bigger than my bathroom

 

 **(14:17) LYRA BELACQUA  
**it's from when i was shopping for my quinceaños dress  
i convinced my mum to get on with a less outrageous skirt  
but i looked baddass for the five seconds it took her to realise i was riding pan  
[ sent a photo ]  
thoughts?  
not that it matters cause marisa already paid for it and the girls approve [ peace-sign-emoji ]

 

 **(14:17) WILL PARRY  
**At least the skirt is decent sized

 

 **(14:18) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ 3-yellow-heart-emojis ]  
also before i forget  
my mum is letting me bring a plus one  
[ ring-emoji ] will you humbly accept my request of being that plus one

 

 **(14:19) WILL PARRY  
**Lyra your mum hates me

 

 **(14:19) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i was gonna ask selene cause marisa actually likes her  
but she would probably have a stroke if i brought a girl so  
and i don't want to force roger because of his anxiety  
my dad isn't gonna be at the party so we only have to worry about the monkey  
i'll protect you [ red-heart-emoji ]  
we can go hide in my room in her house halfway through and watch netflix on my phone  
i really can't make the offer more enticing than that  
oh! also rich people food?? it is as good as it sounds

 

 **(14:19) WILL PARRY  
**I don't have a tux

 

 **(14:20) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i'll go to your house tomorrow and we'll find something you can wear

 

 **(14:21) WILL PARRY  
**Fine

 

 **(14:21) LYRA BELACQUA  
**thank youuu [ sparkly-heart-emoji ]

 

 **(14:21) WILL PARRY  
**[ yellow-heart-emoji ]

 

* * *

 

 **(13:18) ASRIEL BELACQUA** to **LYRA (PANTALAIMON)  
**Be ready before 1pm tomorrow  
We have to be at the restaurant before 1:30

 

 **(13:18) LYRA BELACQUA to DAD (ENGLAND)  
**okay

 

 **(13:19) ASRIEL BELACQUA  
**No jeans or trainers Lyra

 

 **(13:21) LYRA BELACQUA  
**okay  
lo que sea que vayas a decir mum already said it regarding her cocktail party so don't bother  
oh sorry i meant MY quinceaños  
i will go to have lunch exactly as i would go to the party

 

 **(13:22) ASRIEL BELACQUA  
**Watch your tone

 

 **(13:24) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i am texting dad there is no tone

 

 **(13:27) ASRIEL BELACQUA  
**I hope you won't have this attitude during lunch tomorrow

 

 **(13:30) LYRA BELACQUA  
**ugh you and mum are the same

 

* * *

 

 **(20:03) LYRA BELACQUA** to **COOLEST SIDEKICK  
**next time you hear from me i will be in prison for arson

 

 **(20:03) ROGER PARSLOW** to **CAPTAIN SILVERTONGUE  
**I'll bail you out

 

 **(20:03) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ 3-sparkly-heart-emojis ]  
yknow i think i can make it look like an accident  
all the table arrangements have tealight candles

 

 **(20:04) ROGER PARSLOW  
**Will still alive?

 

 **(20:04) LYRA BELACQUA  
**[ sent a photo ]  
yup  
you should've heard the way my mum said "william"  
for a glorious second i thought she was gonna kick both of us out

 

* * *

 

**THE DUSTLINGS**

 

 **(20:05) MONICA LEWIS** aka **RAWR RAWR MOTHERFUCKER  
**What form did Pan choose for the party

 

 **(20:05) LYRA BELACQUA** aka **ACTUAL GODDESS  
**[ sent a photo ]  
dragon to piss off the mum

 

 **(20:06) RACHEL BERNTHAL** aka **WINE AUNT  
**look at those rainbow scales [ 2-clap-emojis ]  
[ sent a photo ]  
we match now

 

 **(20:07) LYRA BELACQUA  
**RAINBOW BUDDIES [ sparkle-emoji ] [ rainbow-emoji ]

 

* * *

 

 **(21:20) MARISA COULTER** to **LYRA  
**Lyra where are you?

 

 **(21:23) LYRA BELACQUA to PROGENITORA  
**hiding in my room with will  
got tired of you presenting me to the sons of your friends

 

 **(21:23) MARISA COULTER  
**Lyra  
You cannot hide in your room at your own party

 

 **(21:23) LYRA BELACQUA  
**well i don't want a boyfriend and it's safe in here  
i just started season two of alternative universe  
so yeah not moving [ peace-sign-emoji ]  
call me when it's time for cake tho

 

* * *

 

 **(22:05) LYRA BELACQUA** to **DR. BIRD  
**mary?

 

 **(22:08) MARY MALONE to LYRA B.  
**Yes, darling

 

 **(22:08) LYRA BELACQUA  
**how did you know you didn't want to date?

 

 **(22:09) MARY MALONE  
**Oh, I tried it and I didn't like it  
It was back when I was a nun I think I already told you the story, the "trip to China" and the "marzipan"  
I only realised it wasn't for me after the fact because in the moment I really did believe I had found true love and whatnot  
Päivykkä is laughing at me just talking about it

 

 **(22:10) LYRA BELACQUA  
**is there a word for it? not wanting to date

 

 **(22:10) MARY MALONE  
**Aromantic is the word for lack of romantic attraction if that's what you're looking for

 

 **(22:10) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i think i might be that

 

 **(22:11) MARY MALONE  
**Oh?

 

 **(22:11) LYRA BELACQUA  
**remember i told you i thought i liked will??

 

 **(22:11) MARY MALONE  
**I remember  
You don't think you do?

 

 **(22:11) LYRA BELACQUA  
**nope  
plus roger liked him first and that would be violating our bro code

 

 **(22:12) MARY MALONE  
**Well I'm happy for you, sweetie [ blue-heart-emoji ]

 

 **(22:12) LYRA BELACQUA  
**this is nice [ heart-spiral-emoji ]

 

* * *

 

 **(1:01) LYRA BELACQUA** to **CRAZY CAT LADY  
**turns out i never had a crush on you cause i’m aro

 

 **(1:01) WILL PARRY to BLONDE GREMLIN**  
?????????  
Crush???????  
Since when???????

 

 **(1:02) LYRA BELACQUA  
**i thought your face was pretty when we met  
but that’s it [ peace-sign-emoji ]

 

* * *

 

**THE SECRET QUINCEAÑOS**

 

 **(14:05) LYRA BELACQUA  
**PARTY IS TONIGHT AT 19:00 DON'T BE LATE  
[ myriad-of-sparkles-and-heart-emojis ]

 

* * *

 

 **(21:21) LYRA BELACQUA to MENTORA  
**HANNAH HURRY WITH THE CAKE

 

 **(21:21) HANNAH RELF to LYRA BELACQUA  
**I’m almost to the restaurant

 

* * *

 

[ a photo of a group of five girls standing in line with their dæmons on shoulders, around their necks, on their heads, or in front of them. all posing with colourful plastic party attire like big fucsia glasses or headbands with sparkly heart-shaped antenna. ]

[ a photo of the same five girls taken moments after, this time Lyra is being held horizontally by all of them ]

[ a photo of Lyra and Roger, Pantalaimon and Salcilia as birds with overwhelmingly colourful feathers on their heads. they have their arms crossed and are back-to-back ]

[ a photo of Lyra and Will, he's giving her a piggyback ride while wearing a plastic red fedora covered in glitter. she has a pink tiara rimmed with pink faux feathers ]

[ a photo of Roger, Lyra, and Will all holding sparklers ]

[ a 2:04 video of Lyra dancing salsa with Selene ]

[ a 1:32 video of Rachel and Monica singing Never Gonna Give You Up ]

[ a photo of Lyra and Mary, hugging, Mary is wearing one of those headbands with heart-shaped antenna and Lyra now has overly large star-shaped green glasses ]

[ a photo of Lyra as she's blowing the candles of her cake ]

[ a 3:11 video of singing happy birthday that includes Lyra biting the cake and getting her face smashed in by Dianne ]

[ a photo of Lyra with frosting all over her face and laughing ]

[ a photo of Lyra rubbing frosting on Dianne's face for pushing her face into the cake ]

[ a 1:40 video of obligatory nonsense, the Dustling girls are screaming and laugh at the camera being held in selfie mode by Rachel ]

[ a photo of Lyra and Dame Hannah, Pantalaimon on Jesper's head as a mouse, Lyra still has frosting on her cheeks ]

[ a photo of Lyra by herself, smiling and holding the one and five balloons, ermine-Pantalaimon on her shoulder ]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [@lyraandthedustlings](https://lyraandthedustlings.tumblr.com/) came up with the name of "The Dustlings" for Lyra's friend group.  
> The name of Mary's dæmon, Päivykkä, is from [@johnfaa's](https://johnfaa.tumblr.com/) oneshot Lesson On How To Cling Together.


End file.
